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AbstractSince the summer of 2015, hundreds of Arab Palestinians from Israel have joined the massive number of volunteers who flocked to Greece and other locations in Europe to assist refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries. Based on their stories about their experiences of volunteering, this essay examines how the affective regime of humanitarian action in crises mutates when such action is practiced by ordinary people who are living through their own protracted political crisis. Focusing on the empathy that Palestinian volunteers have practiced in their encounters with refugees, I show that the Palestinian relief actions and the solidarity of shared precariousness they embody challenge the premises of Western humanitarianism but also complicate the picture sketched by studies on "other humanitarianisms" from beyond the Western and universalist frame. I claim that empathy—one of the main humanitarian resources the Palestinian helpers have mobilized—has prompted a composite sense of affinity in which the similarities between the helpers and the refugees were both stressed and qualified. This affinity, as I further show, draws not just on the helpers' traumatic memories and cultural and ethnic affiliations but also on their fears of the future.

The history of the internet in China is often narrated from the standpoint of infrastructural development, commercial growth, and social change—a framework that foregrounds governmental policies, corporate decisions, and large-scale public debates. And yet, in parallel to these processes, the widespread adoption of the internet and its domestication by hundreds of millions of Chinese users have resulted in a long history of digital folklore: everyday, vernacular practices responding to this new communication medium through creativity and invention. By extending the concepts of folk, the lore and the vernacular to the realm of digital media, the analytical framework of digital folklore helps understanding the relationship between creativity and new communication technologies. Drawing on a rich body of academic research on the topic, this short essay reviews three decades of Chinese digital folklore, highlighting the continuities and peculiarities of vernacular creativity throughout the country's internet history.

Abstract
This article investigates Chinese social eating livestreams (chibo) in the context of China's 2020 campaign against food waste. It argues that the subgenre 'big stomach kings', a target of the campaign, evinces the moral implications of Chinese affluence, of which food waste is exemplary. The emerging affluence in China has normalized conspicuous, wasteful consumption and given rise to a local form of flaunting wealth called 'xuanfu'. Chinese social media are inundated with xuanfu images, a symptom of the necessary psychosocial adaptation to affluence. Isolating the 'big stomach kings' livestreams from the social context of xuanfu, the anti-waste campaign glosses over the underlying social issue of the vast wealth gap between the affluent and the poor. To expose the ethical controversy of these livestreams, the article also analyzes their gender politics by parsing the mystifying image of female 'big stomach kings', whose slim bodies are in stark contrast to their enormous appetites.

PurposeThis conversation presents the reflections from four inspirational early career disaster scholars on the opportunities and challenges associated with post-disaster research and disaster studies in general.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on the conversations that took place on Disasters: Deconstructed Podcast livestream on the 15th September 2021.FindingsThe prominent themes in this conversation include representation, power imbalances and research extractivism and reciprocity.Originality/valueThe conversation contributes to the ongoing discussions around how research is conducted immediately following disasters.

PurposeThis conversation focuses on the reproduction of vulnerability incarceration and homelessness and presents the reflections of scholars, writers, activists and practitioners.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on the conversations that took place on Disasters: Deconstructed Podcast livestream on the 31st of March 2022.FindingsThe prominent themes in this conversation include homelessness, incarceration, stigma and marginalisation.Originality/valueThe conversation contributes to the ongoing discussions around the reproduction of vulnerability and the importance of understanding its root causes of disaster scholarship, practice and activism.

"ESPN has fired Shannon Sharpe."

From the creator of one of China's most rapidly growing apps comes the next evolution of social media: providing a voice—and subsequent business opportunities—to the digitally underserved. The Chinese app Kuaishou isn't just another large livestreaming platform competing with TikTok or Facebook Reels. What makes it different? Rather than focusing on the latest hot topic or celebrity publicity stunt, Kuaishou strives to ensure equitable access to the digitally underserved or neglected. Kuaishou's founders' approach is working wonders. More than 300 million people use Kuaishou every day, and the platform enabled over 20 million people to earn income through e-commerce each year—and this book tells the entire fascinating story in the age of livestreaming. The Age of Livestreaming describes the leadership vision of Kuaishou's founders—to enhance every person's unique sense of happiness—and shows how the rapid development of livestreaming has facilitated dynamic growth in e-commerce across a broad range of industries and products, particularly the fashion industry. It provides critical insights every business leader should be considering today.